Chapter59
(Gale POV)
My mother is sitting, reading a book when Madge and I throw the door open and hurry into my family's unit. She looks so startled and immediately thinks something is wrong by the way we burst into the room.
"What's wrong?" She quickly asks, dropping her book and standing.
"No, nothing is wrong, nothing at all. Sorry." I apologize quickly, feeling bad that I've startled her. "We just want to show you a picture and ask you about it."
Her whole body relaxes and she sits back down. I pick up her book where it fell to the floor and hand it back to her. Madge hands me the picture and I hold it out for my mother to see.
"Do you recognize this picture? Is that you?" I ask.
She takes the picture and lets out a little sigh as her eyes study it. "It's me and Maggie. A very long time ago."
"You were friends with my mother?" Madge asks.
My mother nods, smiles once at the picture and then hands it back. "Yes, for a little while."
"How come you never mentioned that before?" I ask, genuinely curious.
She shrugs. "It was such a long time ago. I think we may be only 14 or 15 in that picture. And Maggie was friendly with everyone, not just me. She was always in the Seam, seemed to prefer it over spending time in town. But then life happened, we got older and responsibilities set in. A lot of high expectations were placed on her and eventually she didn't have the time and freedom to hang out with us or come to bonfires. Eventually we drifted apart I suppose."
"But you never even mentioned it! You never told me you even met her!" I exclaim, still in disbelief that she kept this to herself.
She laughs a little. "We were the same age, Gale. We went to the same school. Of course I knew her. Everyone knew her."
"Did you know she was in love with Haymitch Abernathy?" Madge asks her.
"Who told you that?" My mother asks back.
"They both did. I got a letter today that my mother wrote me before she died, that's how I got the picture. Then I talked to Haymitch and he confirmed it all."
A smile spreads across my mother's face and she shakes her head. "Well I suppose it's no longer a secret then."
My mouth drops open and I gawk at her. How could she not have told me any of this? "Seriously? You didn't think to ever mention that?" I implore.
"Maggie and Haymitch were each others first loves. A teenage love of sorts, it didn't last long and ended just before she married your father and before the games messed Haymitch up so badly. Him being from the Seam and her being such an important young girl in the district, it was all a secret and those of us who knew about it, knew not to talk about it. Maggie didn't want her parents to find out. And I never mentioned it to you because why on earth would I? I don't have a habit of giving you a run down of your girlfriend's parent's love lives from their teenage years, that would be ridiculous."
Madge smiles now. "Actually, they were more than just teenage first loves. They were lifelong loves. They secretly stayed together until she died."
Now my mother finally looks surprised. "Really?"
Madge's head bobs up and down and she smiles. "And, if you didn't know that part then you probably didn't know their biggest secret either."
I wait with anticipation, watching my mother's intrigued face because I know Madge is about to drop the whole Haymitch is my father part on her.
"Haymitch is actually my biological father." Madge tells her, grinning ear to ear as my mother's face covers in shock.
"What? I can't believe them!" She replies, hand on chest as she lets the shock sink in. "I never even suspected they were still seeing one another!"
"True love I suppose." Madge says with a shrug. "I just found all of this out today myself so it was a very well kept secret."
"At the risk of sounding like a gossip, and please excuse me if I do but I have to ask, did your father, the Mayor, did he know any of this?" My mother asks leaning in. I smile to myself because I've never seen my mother like this before. She's never one to ask these sorts of questions and get all into gossip but she totally is right now and it's hilarious.
Madge smiles, not at all offended by my mother's forwardness. "I'm told he had no idea whatsoever though he wasn't a huge fan of my mother being friends with Haymitch."
"Your father, the Mayor I mean, wasn't a big fan of anyone being friends with your mother. He was all business all the time and expected the same of her I think."
Posey comes running into the room, Prim just behind her. "Madge!" She cries out and runs over, taking Madge's hand. "Come see our room! We got bunk beds now that I have a sister!"
"We're busy having grown up talk right now Pose." I tell her. She scowls up at me and folds her arms over her chest, stomping her foot in full sass at what I said. I try to stifle a laugh.
Madge looks up at me and shakes her head as if I'm being ridiculous by telling Posey we are busy. "I have time to go see their room."
Posey jumps up and down in delight and then darts off, dragging Madge by the hand, Prim following with a smile. It's good to see her smiling.
With Madge out of the room I take the opportunity to ask my mother a question. "So if you were friend's with Madge's mother, why did you care so much when you found out I was dating Madge?"
"Because I remember what life was like for Maggie. She had to keep her Seam friendships and relationships a secret. And when she married Madge's father, all of that seemed to end altogether. He didn't want her associating with anything or anyone from the Seam. He barely let her associate with anyone in town. I'm sure he didn't want Madge to have any Seam associations either. And Madge was practically engaged to another boy at the time and involved in a very public relationship with him. And you have a history of going through girlfriends very quickly. It seemed like an awful lot of risk for both of you for something that would likely end as quickly as it started."
"Well now that you know she's the one I'm never getting rid of, do you like her better?" I ask.
"Gale, it was never that I didn't like her. Madge is a lovely girl. She actually reminds me quite a bit of Maggie. I like her very much."
"But do you like us as a couple?" I push.
"I do. I think she's good for you. I think you're both awfully young to be so serious and I still don't think you need to spend the night at her place but yes, I do like you two as a couple."
"I'm the same age you were when you and dad got together. He was only a year older than me when you married him." I point out.
She lets out a sigh and smiles. "Well you seem much younger. Why are you so concerned about my approval? You never seemed to care much about it before."
"Because she's definetly the girl I'm going to marry and it's really, really important to me that you to like her, that you like us being together."
Alarm crosses her face and she stiffens. "Marry her? Gale, you didn't get her in trouble did you?"
I roll my eyes and shake my head. "No Ma, she's not pregnant. And I'm not marrying her today. But I am going to marry her one day. I'm not kidding about her being the one."
"If she's the one you marry, I'll be very happy, I promise. I just don't want you in too much of a rush to grow up. You two have nothing but time ahead of you, no need to hurry."
I nod, accepting her response. "Thanks. I've never felt this way about anyone so it's just really important to me that you love her too."
"I do, Gale. And her mother would've loved you. I know she would have."
I smile at that little happy thought.
(Madge POV)
Gale and I slip off by ourselves after a dinner with the entire Hawthorne clan. We take a little walk through the park area of 13. I feel so giddy and happy over all that I've found out today. I've always felt like my family wasn't much of a family at all. My mother having died when I was so young and my father being so cold and distant, always just focused on the Capitol, left me without much sentiment for family. I always sort of felt like something was missing. But now I feel as if I have an entirely new perspective on my family. The family I grew up with never felt right because it wasn't my real family. Now I have Haymitch and a true insight to my mother's memory and I feel so much more complete now.
"This was such a good day." I tell Gale as we walk.
"It was, wasn't it? I'm so glad you got to find out so much about your mother."
"Me too. My father never talked about her and I barely remembered anything from when she was alive. I'm so glad that now I have a way to really get to know who she was. I think it's kind of neat that she was friends with your mom."
"Me too. I had no idea they even knew each other. She'd never mentioned anything about it. But you know what? She told me that your mom would've liked me." Gale tells me.
I smile up at him. "You wanna know something? Haymitch told me the same thing. He said she would've loved that I was with you."
"I like that it seems I would have had her vote of approval. I mean, us being together was never an ideal situation back in 12 but I feel like once all the manipulation of Panem is peeled away, the people who's opinions actually matter would have been in our favor." He says.
"True, but honestly, at the core, all that really matters most is what we think of one another. And I can assure you that I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me, that I'm lucky to be your girlfriend."
A huge smile spreads across his face and he stops walking, stepping onto the grassy area and leaning back against a tree, pulling me to him. A thrill runs through me as he leans down and kisses me, still pulling me against him. The kiss deepens just for a moment before I remember that we're in the middle of a public space and people could walk by and see us at any moment so I pull back, already a little breathless from the intensity of that kiss.
"What if someone sees us? We should go to my place." I mumble as he tugs me back towards him, his mouth quickly finding mine again.
He pulls back. "But your place is so far away from here." He jokingly whines, stealing one more kiss. "I had to kiss you right this instant." He adds, kissing me again.
I shake my head and smile, taking his hand and pulling him towards the elevators. "Let's go home. Right this instant." I say taunting him a little with his own words.
In the elevator we happen to be the only ones aboard so he loops his arms around my waist from behind me and starts kissing my neck. My eyes close and I let out a sigh as pleasure runs through me. My arm reaches up behind me and I run my fingers through his hair as his kisses leave a trail of fire along my neck. When the elevator stops, I practically pull him out the door and into my room.
His fingers find the hem of my shirt and I raise my arms as he pulls it off, dropping it to the floor. His shirt slips off just as quickly and my lips go to his chest, planting light kisses on it as my fingers work to undo the button on his pants. Seconds later, all clothing is discarded and we're crashing onto the bed together. Our lips and hands moving over one another with want and need, our bodies finding a rhythm and then moving as one. After, as I lie breathless in his embrace, my face resting against his chest, I close my eyes and just savor the moment. I think to myself how happy I am with my life now and how I can't wait to spend the rest of my life filling my days with moments like this.